Mike Gundy

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Mike Gundy
Title	Head coach
College	Oklahoma State
Sport	Football
Conference	Big 12
Team record	18–19
Born	August 12, 1967 (1967-08-12) (age 40)
Place of birth	Midwest City, OK
Annual salary	$900,000[1]
Career highlights
Overall	18–19
Coaching stats
College Football DataWarehouse
Playing career
1986-1989	Oklahoma State
Position	Quarterback
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
2005-present	Oklahoma State

Michael Ray Gundy (born August 12, 1967) is the 40 year old head football coach at Oklahoma State University and a former quarterback of the Cowboys. Gundy became Oklahoma State's coach on January 3, 2005. In 2007 he received national media attention for his heated criticism of a newspaper article on one of his players.^[2][3]

Contents 1 Playing career 2 Coaching career 2.1 Early positions 2.2 Oklahoma State 3 2007 Media controversy 4 Personal 5 Head coaching records 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Playing career

At Midwest City High School, Gundy played quarterback, and was voted Oklahoma Player of the Year in 1986.^[4] Gundy grew up a Sooner fan and was recruited by the University of Oklahoma but in the end decided that Oklahoma State offered a better opportunity for a passing quarterback and signed with the Cowboys.^{[citation needed]} He became the starting quarterback midway through his freshman year and held the job from 1986-1989.^{[citation needed]} Gundy would become the all-time leading passer in Oklahoma State and Big 8 Conference history.^{[citation needed]} Over the course of four years, Gundy threw 49 touchdowns and 7,997 yards, including 2,106 yards in 1987 and 2,163 in 1988.^[4] He led the Cowboys to bowl wins in the 1987 Sun Bowl and 1988 Holiday Bowl aided by two Hall of Fame running backs, Thurman Thomas and Barry Sanders.^{[citation needed]}. Mike Gundy holds the record for "most consecutive passes attempted without an interception at the start of a career by a freshman" in Division 1 history with 138.

[edit] Coaching career

[edit] Early positions

When Gundy graduated, he became an assistant coach for the Cowboys. He was wide receiver coach in 1990, quarterback coach from 1991-1993 and offensive coordinator from 1994-1995. However, after the 1995 season, he left for Baylor.^{[citation needed]}

Gundy was quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator for Baylor during the 1996 season. He was on staff with Larry Fedora at Baylor and would rekindle that relationship when he became head coach at Oklahoma State bringing Fedora on as his offensive coordinator. After the season, he moved again, this time to Maryland where he was wide receiver coach and passing game coordinator from 1997-2000.

[edit] Oklahoma State

In 2001, the Oklahoma State job became vacant when Bob Simmons resigned and a search produced Les Miles and Mike Gundy as the finalists. Miles was hired as head coach and Gundy was brought aboard as offensive coordinator. The team would go on to three straight bowl games in Miles's last three years as head coach. When Miles left in 2004 to take the LSU job, Gundy was named immediately as Miles successor and the 22nd head coach at Oklahoma State.

His first season saw the expulsion of eleven players from the team and the Cowboys struggled to a 4-7 record winning only one Big 12 conference game. In his second season, the Cowboy offense began to click and the Cowboys would finish 7-6 including a victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Independence Bowl. As of December 31, 2007, eight of his eighteen career victories have come against teams from 1-AA or the Sun Belt Conference.^[3] Coming into the 2007 spring Orange vs. White game, the Oklahoma State athletic department billed his team as having the "World's Most Powerful Offense," which struck a nerve among fans and rivals.^[5] To this point, the team has come close to living up to those expectations. USA Today reported November 19, 2007 that the team is number 6 in the country in total offense, number 40 in passing, and number 8 in rushing.^[6]

In 2007, after Gundy led the Cowboys to their second consecutive bowl appearance, Oklahoma State gave him a one-year contract extension, allowing him to coach through the 2013 season.^[7]

[edit] 2007 Media controversy

On September 22, 2007, Gundy made comments that became the subject of a nationwide media controversy. Following his team's victory over the Texas Tech Red Raiders, Gundy refused to discuss or answer any questions about the game. Instead, he said he wanted to talk about a newspaper article that had appeared that day. The article was critical of one of Gundy's players and Gundy launched into what ESPN called a "tirade" against the journalist who wrote the story.^[2][3] Video clips of the coach, at times screaming, were quickly downloaded more than 75,000 times from video streaming sites such as YouTube,^[8][9][10] where it became one of the ten most-downloaded clips of the day.^[11] Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman wrote the original article discussing Bobby Reid, the former starting quarterback, and reasons why he may have been demoted to second-string. The OSU coaching staff publicly supported Reid earlier in the year but then demoted him with no explanation of the change.^[12] The article was titled "Reid is still the most talented signal-caller, but attitude is reason for change".^[13] Carlson said that Reid was still the most talented quarterback on the team but that he got "nicked in some games and sat it out instead of gutting it out."^[8]

In his post-game speech to the media, Gundy called three-fourths of Carlson's column "fiction". During his weekly news conference the following Monday, Carlson asked the coach to point out what he thought were factual errors in the article and Gundy replied, "I don't have to."^[8] Carlson replied that she can't report errors to the paper unless she knows what they are.^[14] Gundy said, "I don't have to. I'd rather just let it go."^[8][14] Gundy was asked two more times by reporters from other papers and still declined to explain which parts of the article were incorrect.^[11][15] He said that his only regrets concerning his post-game statements were that he wished he had said more and been better prepared. Gundy went as far as saying that when Carlson becomes a mother someday she will then realize how difficult it is to console a child who has been ridiculed because he dropped a pass or because someone called him fat.^[11] Gundy called the 21-year old Reid a "good kid" who does things right and is undeserving of such criticism.^[11] He also made the now famous quote, "Come after me! I'm a man! I'm 40!" during the rant, for which he is often imitated. Reid's mother says that the story was malicious and untrue.^[16] She pointed to one thing in the article that she said was untrue; she said she did not feed her son chicken from a box meal after the team's loss to Troy University.^[17]

In a column the following Tuesday, Carlson wrote that she also would like to let it go, had Gundy not questioned her credibility. She wrote, "I will not stand on the sidelines and allow someone to attack my credibility."^[8] She challenged Gundy to point out even one statement from the article that was not factually correct.^[8] The Oklahoman sports editor, Mike Sherman, also stood by the story.^[18] Mike Griffith, president of the Football Writers Association of America, called Gundy's behavior "completely inappropriate".^[8] CBS Sportsline's Dennis Dodd went further saying, "Mike Gundy needs to be reprimanded, definitely suspended, probably fined and maybe fired.^[19] OSU athletic director Mike Holder stood behind Gundy, saying that "nothing is more important to us than our student-athletes."^[11] College football coaches were divided in their opinions. Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh said, "I feel like the coach at Oklahoma State summed it up very well. I’m in agreement with him."^[20] However, Oregon State coach Mike Riley said that dealing with both criticism and praise is just part of a player’s learning experience. Riley said, "They’re young men, but I think college is all about growth and development. The scrutiny part of it is part of our life, and they have to be educated about that."^[20]

The episode generated discussion about what constitutes fair criticism for players that welcome the adulation of the press when things are going well for them.^{[12][18][19][21][10][15]} In Gundy's criticism of Carlson, he said that she would have never written the piece if she were a parent like himself. There are some concerns that the remarks constituted a form of sexism and about whether Gundy would have launched a similar attack on a male sportswriter.^{[12][21][22][11]} The Association for Women in Sports Media said that Gundy handled the situation in an "unprofessional manner."^[8] Football fans were divided on the issue. Some thought that Carlson's story was unfair and that Gundy did the right thing in sticking up for his player. Others thought that Carlson had a right to run the story and that Gundy over-reacted.^[23]

[edit] Personal

Gundy and his wife, Kristen, have three children, Gavin, Gunnar and Gage.^[4] His brother, Cale Gundy, is the running backs coach for the University of Oklahoma.^[24]

[edit] Head coaching records

Year	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Bowl
Oklahoma State Cowboys (Big 12 Conference) (2005 – present)
2005	Oklahoma State	4–7	1–7	5th (South)
2006	Oklahoma State	7–6	3–5	5th – T (South)	W 34–31 Independence
2007	Oklahoma State	7–6	4–4	3rd – T (South)	W 49–33 Insight
Total:		18–19

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Oklahoma State Cowboys: Team Bio
• Video: Mike Gundy's rant

Preceded by Les Miles

Oklahoma State University Head Football Coach 2005–current

Succeeded by Current

v • d • e Oklahoma State Cowboys Head Football Coaches Hill • Parry • Davis • Griffith • Pritchard • Pixlee • Maulbetsch • Waldorf • Exendine • Cox • Lookabaugh • Whitworth • Speegle • Cutchin • Gass • Smith • Stanley • Johnson • Jones • Simmons • Miles • Gundy

v • d • e Big 12 Conference head football coaches North Division Dan Hawkins (Colorado) • Gene Chizik (Iowa State) • Mark Mangino (Kansas) • Ron Prince (Kansas State) • Gary Pinkel (Missouri) • Bo Pelini (Nebraska) South Division Art Briles (Baylor) • Bob Stoops (Oklahoma) • Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State) • Mack Brown (Texas) • Mike Sherman (Texas A&M) • Mike Leach (Texas Tech)

Persondata
NAME	Gundy, Mike
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Football coach and player
DATE OF BIRTH	August 12, 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH	Midwest City, Oklahoma
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH